Eek!

shoe_gal_84

Hi All,

Whilst I was thrilled when my BF asked me to marry him a couple of weeks ago, I have now realised how damn expensive weddings are.

I have been in debt since university (7 years ago), and joined MSE a couple of years ago to try and sort myself out. I did really well, and currently owe £1500 on a 0% interest card which would have been paid off by June this year.

Now, i'm thrown into how much wedding stuff costs and just CANNOT believe it. I'm more than prepared to cut costs and make some things myself, but it's just ridiculous how much you are expected to spend.

Both me and my OH have quite strong feelings about the fact that we don't want to take out any credit to pay for the wedding, but this means that we will be utterly skint until April 2012!

Sorry for the rant!

sammy_wheeler

firstly congrats!
and secondly- try not to get bogged down with it and try to enjoy

we are all here to help if you need us

Magicboo

As Sammy says-Congratulations!!
Weddings can be as expensive as you want them to be. Some things are non-negotiable such as the church or registra fees, but so many other things can be amended/altered/changed for something you can afford. For the first couple of months, just get ideas, then in a while start thinking what you want that is non-negotiable (eg wanting 15 bridesmids or a harpist playing whilst you sign the register) and then see how you can compromise on other things, such as using the village hall and independant caterers instead of the expensive hotel or finding your dress on a pre-loved website instead of in a bridal shop. Also, ebay is amazing. I reckon you could do an entire wedding from ebay if you tried hard enough!
Post any questions on this board, people know SO much stuff, it's great!
x

Dekazer

We know the feeling Shoe Gal! DF told a work mate the other day how much we're intending to spend, and she was very shocked at how little it was. We're planning to spend about £7k!! Hardly a small amount of money! People go mad with wedding expenditure these days...

In terms of your wedding, have you set a date yet? Our budget was set, in large part, by working out how much we could save before the date. I suppose the shorter the time span, the less you could save up.

Our biggest expense (I guess the same for everyone) will be the venue and food. Even there we're trying to get it as low as possible. Everything else will be done in true money saving style. Except for DF's suit, which he wants tailor made, and will cost a fair bit. I'm quite happy with an off the peg high street dress :rotfl:

Congratulations though Shoe Gal, and like others have said, do enjoy it as well as worrying

shoe_gal_84

Thanks for all your replies. We are aiming for April 2012, giving us 15 months to save up.

Family members have offered to contribute some money, but I feel terrible taking money from them, and we will be paying for most of it ourselves.

Looking forward to having a look on here for tips!

RainbowDrops

I totally feel your panic.
I remember getting overwhelmed by the potential cost at first.
Both of our parents generously offered to contribute, but we were wary of accepting / how much to accept.
The main issue was the worry that if our parents did contribute, we were worried that we would have to hand over a certain amount of control to them and not have the wedding we wanted.
In the end we managed to come to an agreement, and the parents are helping out with the food & venue costs.
We're doing all the personal touches, such as clothes, entertainment, favours, decorations etc.

nunnygirl

Congrats on the engagement firstly! Enjoy being a fiancee for a bit!

Totally agree with something that was said above. Weddings are only as expensive as you make them. We're having a small wedding, around 50 people, and it's costing us, with food, photography etc, about £1.5k but there is more budget if we need it. My parents are helping contribute but they know we will only ask if we cannot afford it ourselves.